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The Lamar girls and boys varsity basketball teams will play their final games of the regular season tonight when they host the La Junta Tigers at the Lamar Community Building.

The Lamar Lady Savages varsity game will start at 6:00 and followed by Savages varsity game.

The Lady Savages are coming off a split of two road games last week.

Lamar easily defeated Florence, 65-22, on Friday and then made the trip to Colorado Springs Christian where they fell to the Lady Lions 43-31.

It was their second lowest point production of the season for Lamar compared to a 45-27 loss to St. Mary’s back on Jan. 23.

Against CSC, the Lady Savages got off to a miserable start and scored only two points in the first quarter to set the tone of the game.

Despite a winning record of 13-5 and being ranked in the top 10 most of the year, it’s been an up and down season for the Lady Savages as far as their Tri-Peaks League record is concerned.

Lamar is 5-4 in league play and will finish in sixth place in the standings no matter the outcome of the La Junta game.

The Lady Savages, who were ranked 8th, dropped out ofnewest state rankings by CHSAANow while La Junta moved into the state rankings at No. 10.

La Junta (7-2 and 14-4) sits in third place behind first place Manitou Springs (9-0 and 18-0) and second place St. Mary’s (9-1 and 16-2).

Trinidad (7-3 and 14-5) finished in fourth place and Colorado Springs Christian (6-4 and 14-4) was fifth.

“The games with Trinidad and Colorado Springs Christian in particular were huge losses for us,” said Lamar head coach Erik Melgoza. “Now, the postseason presents a second opportunity for us and hopefully we can fulfill some our goals.”

The Lamar Savages are coming off a pair of losses to Florence, 55-51, and to No. 3 state-ranked Colorado Springs Christian, 57-34.

The Savages and La Junta will basically be playing to see who will finish eighth in the league standings. Both teams are 4-7 in league play and 9-9 overall.

The winner of tonight’s game will likely host the loser in a pigtail game (#9 at #8) on Saturday, Feb. 20 at 1 p.m.

Looking ahead to postseason, the Tri-Peaks League qualifies seven teams for the 32-team 3A state basketball tournament.

The district tournament champion is the league No. 1 state qualifier and the second place team will be the No. 2 state qualifier. The district tournament 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7th place finishers will be the 3, 4, 5, 6, and7 state qualifiers respectively.

Tri-Peaks will protect the league champion, and that team will be submitted in the last sport from our league in the event of being eliminated from the league tournament.

The Tri-Peaks 13th place boy’s team will be eliminated from the district tournament. #1, 2, 3, and 4 will receive byes and will not play in the pigtail games.

The Tri-Peaks 11th place girl’s team will be eliminated from the district tournament. #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 will receive byes and will not play in the pigtail games.

The pigtail games are slated for Saturday, Feb. 20 will be hosted by the higher seed.

All games will begin at 1 p.m. unless a school is hosting a girl-boy doubleheader.

The matchups for the boys will be #9 at #8, #12 at #5, #10 at #7, and #11 at #6.

For the girls it will be #9 at #8 and #10 at #7.

Losers in the pigtail games are eliminated.

On Tuesday, Feb. 23 will be the first-round games for the girl’s bracket at the home sites of the higher seed. Game times are 6 p.m.

#8 or #9 winner at #1; #7 or #10 winner at #2; #5 at #4; and #6 Lamar at #3 La Junta.

On Wednesday, Feb. 24 will be the first-round games for the boy’s bracket at the home sites of the higher seed. Game times are 6 p.m.

#8 or #9 winner at #1; #7 or #10 winner at #2; #6 or #11 winner at #3; and #5 or #12 winner at #4.

The second and final round for both the girls and boys in the Tri-Peaks League Tournament will move to the Pueblo Central HS Gym.